I believe we are being psychologically prepared for war with Iran. Things are falling into place with an inevitability and a regularity that is hard to dismiss as just the normal progress of events. Iran has been attacked diplomatically, politically, and with assassinations, cyberwarfare, and sabotage. Let’s round up the usual suspects.
The Americans: They don’t want a nuclear Iran, are exerting heavy diplomatic and economic pressure, and repeatedly, speak publicly and paradoxically about “anything short of war” and “war cannot be ruled out”. Recently, they have publicly accused the Iranians of planning to assassinate Saudi diplomats in the US. Even if this is true, its not the sort of thing intelligence agencies publicize unless they have a political agenda.
Israel: A quiet player with plenty of intelligence assets in the region. Their motives are much the same as the Americans.
The Gulf States: Particularly the Saudis. Besides being richer than Croesus and familiar with the region, they are Sunni and Arab and hate their Shia Persians business competition in Iran, not to mention they are natural military and political rivals as well.
Russia and China: Yeah, they are nominally Iran’s allies, but they would have a lot to gain by stirring up trouble for the Americans in the region.
The Iranians themselves: They are starting to wince under the weight of sanctions, their people are on the verge of revolt, their main ally, Syria and all her terror surrogates are on the edge of collapse, and there is a schism at the highest levels of power in Tehran. The Iranians might prefer war, even one they lose, to the erosion of their dictatorship from within. It can’t even be ruled out that some of these assassinations (but not all) were fabricated as an excuse to provoke a convenient distraction–kind of like the “blockade of Hormuz” and trumped-up spy charges on helpless tourists.
It is certain at least one of these factors is at work here, trying to precipitate a war. It is probable several are occuring simultaneously, working in concert. It’s even possible they are all in play at once.
Does anyone else have any ideas?
Oh, and spare me “The evildoers are out to destroy our freedom, because they hate our way of life” bullshit. I only wish the world was that simple.